By Chelsea Callahan
Sitting here in front of my laptop, has yielded nothing over the last few hours. I’ve facebook stalked my friends, I’ve played the mindless games, I’ve checked my email a hundred times. Nothing is firing behind my eye balls. I know I should be working on my homework or my next Grizzly article, but I am just like 90 percent of college students at 10:40pm on a Wednesday night. I am tired, and just don’t feel like doing work anymore.
I could always get more writing done for my novel, but I’m not moved, no inspiration has darkened my door since lunch. Up until two hours ago I had no motivation, no umph, no drive to do anything, just the gumption-less urge to write.
What changed this you ask? Well, tonight, Wednesday April 4th 2012 the last episode, the series finale, of One Tree Hill aired on the US east coast.
For those of you who don’t know what One Tree hill is or was I will tell you this, it was a show unafraid to go to the dark places, a show unafraid to yank reality out of the high school stereotypes, and one that taught its viewers it was safe to believe in themselves. It was a show willing to let the world be quite. It wasn’t bogged down by vampires and the supernatural. It was a show made by real people, telling a story that in retrospect was about us all. Basically, it was a show that changed lives, and I know that for a fact, it changed mine.
During my Radio show every Tuesday at 11 o'clock I often talk about TV shows, and there is a phrase I have noticed I use a lot. "I grew up with that..." a statement that typically for me comes across as a figure of speech. However, Mark Schwahn , the creator of One Tree Hill, and Bethany Joy Lenz, who played Haley James Scott on the show, shared some wonderful insights tonight. Ones that have made me realize, I did grow up with this show, and it has taught me so much. The story was fictional yes but the weight it carried and the lessons it taught will always be with me.
Lucas Scott, played by Chad Michael Murray, once said the words “Tree Hill is a place, and if you look close enough.. you may see someone, someone like you just trying to find their way” This statement is exactly why I felt it necessary for something to be said about One Tree Hill. I watched the finale and realized just how much it meant to me.
Lucas and Nathan Scott, Haley James, Peyton Sawyer, Brooke Davis may have just been characters in a TV show but they all went through high school with me. I didn’t realize it then, but now I know their presence has been with me every step of the way like a best friend, helping, guiding and reassuring me.
On the special that aired before the finale tonight Sophia Bush, who played Brooke Davis Said a few words that sent me leaping for a pen. She said “Its immense and its beautiful”. In context she was talking about the show and what it meant to her, but I believe she inadvertently defined the experience I had with it, and what I imagine many others had as well.
If you haven’t guess by now, I don’t think of One Tree Hill as a TV show. I think of it as my safe haven. When the show opens and that town, Tree Hill, paints itself across my television screen, or Hulu window depending upon the day, I’ve been transported somewhere safe, I’ve come home.
When the episode finished I sat for a moment taking in what it meant and what had just happened. It wasn’t long before I realized I had the urge to write. So I grabbed my laptop, created a playlist to listen to and here I am. Sitting on my bed, my computer on a lap desk, sitting Indian style with a half empty bottle of Powerade balanced on my leg, and a pen in my ear. I’m surrounded by my journal, a tattered copy of Romeo and Juliet, and my pillows finally able to do something, to write something.
So far I’ve simply stated that One Tree Hill taught me a lot, I haven’t said what yet. I was building up I guess.
The characters and their stories showed me that even though I may see Jocks, Nerds, Geeks, Loners, or the Cool kids when I look around, they may not be those things at all. Looking at someone doesn’t tell you their story; it barely shows you the cover page. Even the “Smart Girl” in high school can be guilty of judging people based on stereotypes, I admit it, but no matter how many people actually fit the group you put them in, a lot of them will not.
Peyton Sawyer was a cheerleader, and a rocker. She loved music; she loved black, and red. She wasn’t girlie, she wasn’t peppy. I knew people like her in high school. I’ve been friends with my very own Peyton Sawyer.
Brooke Davis was the sexually active cheerleader, the class president, the fashion designer, the person who seemed to have it all on the outside, but on the inside in private was totally different. She was living basically on her own, her parents didn’t have time for her, she was vulnerable, wanted love, wanted her family back and very few people got to know that. I knew Brooke Davis too. I walked the halls of my high school, no doubt feeling envious of her. Wishing I could be her, never knowing how hard her life really was.
At one point or another I myself even embodied these characters, and others from One Tree Hill, many times, yet none of their stories tell you my mine. What we see is not what we get. Looking at me now, you probably wouldn’t know I tried out for the basketball team in middle school. You probably never would guess I’ve written out two whole novels now. No one can tell by looking at me that I’ve had my heart broken, no one can tell I’ve had loved ones die.
Just like no one can tell the same things about you. Maybe you haven’t done what I have but we all have a story to tell. We all have a story no matter how boring it may seem at times, there is one there, burning fiercely just below the surface.
I named my blog “You Can’t Measure a Dream” after a line off One Tree Hill, because you truly can’t measure them. So I have one message to you. Go out into your life, now that you’ve read this, and find what excites you. Take a new look at the people around you. Make sure you’re not taking a single thing for granted. Embrace the world, and think of a dream. Once you have that dream, hold on tight, with everything you’ve got and believe in it with all your heart.
No one is perfect, but we are all bound together in this beautiful world of imperfections.
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